Scott Ellis is Polishing Up Noël Coward’s Overlooked Gem, FALLEN ANGELS

Throughout his lifetime, from his teens to his sixties, the great Noël Coward wrote over 50 plays. Some of them, like  Hay Fever, Private Lives, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit, have become staples in the theatrical canon. Fallen Angels is not one of them... and yet, this spring, Broadway will see its first revival of the play since 1956.

The man behind the vision is Roundabout Theatre Company's Interim Artistic Director, Scott Ellis, who with Fallen Angels, celebrates his 29th Broadway directing credit. 

"Fallen Angels is something that Todd Haimes was always interested in," he explained to BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge. "He loved Noël Coward. So sadly, when he passed away, I thought, 'Let's try this!' But you can't do this play without two great women. So I went to Kelli [O'Hara] and went to Rose [Byrne] and we did a gala reading of it two years ago. At the end, I said, 'Well, that was sort of fun!'

"Right that night, I said, 'Maybe we should think about doing a full production! So two years later... we finally said yes."

The fact that the play hasn't been seen on Broadway in 70 years is one of Ellis' favorite parts of the experience. "What's really great is that no one knows this play. It kind of feels like finding a painting in the attic of a well-known artist. 

"It's something that I think we were all excited about- introducing a Noël Coward to a new audience. It's been really exciting to sort of delve in and discover it and really figure it out.

"No matter what you think, you're going to come out having basically seen a new Noël Coward, you know? Hopefully it goes well enough that other people start doing it! When you mention it to people in the business, so many people know it... but nobody does it. That always surprised me."

In Fallen Angels, two upper-class wives, their husbands away for the day, share a few toasts to their pre-marital dalliances—with the same man, who just may be en route from France to visit. Old rivalries and past scandals bubble to the surface in this intoxicating romp from one of theatre’s comedy masters.

Fallen Angels, unlike most of Coward's plays, includes two women driving the story, and Ellis knew early that he had to have the right actors to pull it off. "[Kelli and Rose] are great actors, but more than that, they're incredibly great people. It's just a real joy working with them again."

The play arrives in a Roundabout season featuring a polar opposite revival, The Rocky Horror Show, which will run at the non-profit's other Broadway house, Studio 54.

"Roundabout started with older revivals and trying to rediscover older pieces, so I think [Fallen Angels] really does fit a pocket.... but listen. Roundabout will continue to move and shake and change over the years. But for right now, [this play] fits a certain place of hopefully rediscovering something from a really great artist that will surprise some people. I think that's a big part of the history of what Roundabout has done. 

"I just can't even tell you how much it means to me that it'll be a show that I'm involved with, that I directed, and that I know Todd really wanted to do. So it's sort of a perfect moment."

Fallen Angels will open at the Todd Haimes Theatre on April 19, 2026.